by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG
LINK TO PART ONE
~
Adam and I fell silent after that exchange. It was an angry, bitter silence; but I was content with it. But despite my annoyance with him, I didn’t want him burning up with fever again. My revenge for his chivalry would be pointless, after all, if he died off on me.
So in the interest of keeping him alive, I sat listening to him, waiting for his breaths to grow deep and even. Then I poured water from one of the canteens onto the rag that had formerly been my shirt sleeve. I soothed his brow with it again in an effort to keep his forehead cool. It was still frustrating to think that there was little else I could do.
It wasn’t long before help arrived. Peter came back by midday, leading two carriages from Virginia City—my brougham and a sturdy, spacious chaise that my brother owned. I could hear my brother demanding to know where I was even before the carriages were at a halt.
I called out to him and he ran to my side. Once he was satisfied that I wasn’t seriously injured, he saw to my cuts and bruises. Only then did he pay any heed to Adam or the wounded stranger. And he quickly turned his attention back to me, I noticed. I could tell by the fretting sound of his voice that he never wanted to let me out of his sight again.
Fortunately, he had brought Dr. Martin along with him. The doctor went straight to work tending Adam’s leg. Adam woke up for that, but he kept quiet throughout the ordeal. I stayed by his side, regardless of whether he wanted me there.
At length we got Adam and the stranger into the carriages. A wagon would be along later with proper caskets for the corpses we were leaving behind. I’ll admit that I was just as happy not to encounter the bodies again.
We met Hoss and Little Joe along the way back. Someone had sent word to the Ponderosa about the crash and they had ridden hell-bent-for-leather to check up on their older brother. Adam was sitting opposite Jack and me at that point with his leg stretched out. He’d been lapsing in and out of sleep, but he woke up to the voices of Hoss and Joe.
“You all right in there, Adam?” Hoss called once our driver brought the carriage horses to a halt.
“Yeah,” he answered. “Drew’s been taking good care of me.”
He said it casually, but I didn’t miss the irony in his voice.
“Thanks, Drew,” Joe said. His voice was quite near me, so I presume he was sticking his head in the window flap.
“My pleasure,” I said, matching Adam’s irony.
“Don’t worry, older brother,” Joe said. “You’ll be back in Virginia City in no time.”
But I insisted that we bring Adam all the way back to the Ponderosa and not merely to Virginia City. Ben Cartwright, I knew, disdained the fancy broughams and chaises that my brother and I favored. To Mr. Cartwright, a carriage was a grudging necessity in deference to women and to those too elderly or too infirm to ride a horse. Hence none of the carriages on the Ponderosa were comfortable or well-sprung. They were all merely functional.
Ben Cartwright urged us to remain at the ranch once we arrived, but it was an offer made merely out of politeness. He was far too concerned for his son to pay heed to any guests. No matter—I think Jack and I were both eager to take our leave of the Cartwrights.
I don’t wish to dwell on the conversation between Jack and me on the ride back to Virginia City. Suffice to say that he was appalled at the thought of me getting on the next stage to San Francisco. But I stood my ground. The fight lasted us two days. In the end he gave in--but only on the condition that he himself accompany me, regardless of what business awaited him here in town.
It’s a measure of my obsession, I suppose, that I agreed. Ruining Jameson cost me more money in lost business than I made off the deal. Nor was it easy—even from his sickbed, Adam managed to make the affair difficult. But in one respect I was fortunate. Adam offered Jameson a loan to pay his debts, but Jameson refused it. Jameson’s pride did him in there; he didn’t wish to be known as a charity case.
But Adam had other tricks up his sleeve. Moreover, he enlisted his father’s help. Between the two of them they made my life quite difficult. It was damned hard to buy up all Jameson’s debt. The Cartwrights had powerful friends in San Francisco and a few wires from them set back my cause.
Jack couldn’t imagine what was driving me—especially at the expense of our other business interests. I told him that it was a personal matter between Adam and me, but I didn’t elaborate. He wasn’t happy with that answer. He reminded me that personal vendettas had no place in business. The object was to make money, not to ruin someone for revenge.
He was right, of course. But in the end, he gave me my head. And he lent me whatever aid I needed, despite his conviction that I had taken leave of my senses.
At length, Jameson lost his business to me. I sold it for far more than that poor fool would ever have made. But my victory was, at best, a sour satisfaction. Now that the deed was done, I knew that I had cut off my nose to spite my face.
I didn’t seek out Adam when I returned from Virginia City. I assumed that he would seek me out in due course. But in that I was mistaken. It was two months before I encountered Adam again—and, in the end, I was the one who sought him.
I had no contact with Adam in all that time—not even over the mine we both owned shares in. Even when new safety issues came up, Adam refused to come to the meetings. His father came in his stead.
It would be somewhat gratifying, I suppose, to say that Adam was deliberately avoiding me all that time. But it was no such thing. Something had happened to him in the aftermath of a cattle drive.
Adam’s leg had kept him laid up for a little over a month. But he left with Little Joe shortly afterwards to deliver cattle in some God-forsaken desert of a place. He and Joe collected the money and split up afterward. Adam went to do some hunting, intending to rendezvous with his brother in a couple of days. The story in Virginia City was that he encountered some crazy fellow in the desert who held him hostage. But the fellow died—either from heat or because Adam strangled him, depending on which story you believed.
Adam never came to trial over the affair. There was some sort of investigation into the death of Peter Kane, but the cause of his death was inconclusive. Whatever happened, there wasn’t enough evidence for anyone to formally accuse Adam of murder. And even if there had been, surely, I thought, he could have pleaded self defense?
The entire episode provided fodder for gossip in Virginia City. Adam should have made a point of showing himself to quell all the rumors, but he holed himself up in the Ponderosa instead, refusing to see anyone but family.
Left to myself, I would have stayed away, despite my burning curiosity. I couldn’t imagine Adam wishing to see me under such circumstances.
LINK TO PART FOURTEEN
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